MINI PRINTS FROM UWE

Soaring above my garden office (and most of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire) are The Red Kites. These enormous, majestic birds-of-prey screech, dive, glide, fight and play, but they always look beautiful – particularly in evening sunlight, when their red feathers glow like fire. They’re a constant, reassuring presence. Once considered a pest, they were nearly hunted to extinction in England, but Spanish birds were re-introduced to The Chilterns in 1989 and since then, they’ve thrived. I love them. They’re a constant reminder of the wild world. A mere glimpse of one can provide a fleeting but awe-inspiring sense of ‘other’ on even the most hum-drum day. So, here’s my lovely new RED KITE wood engraving print, by artist Ben Jones. I bought it from the wonderful – and seriously under-advertised – UWE ‘Mini Prints’ shop. This is a secret worth sharing…a great place to source affordable, original art for your home.

Since 1986, the Centre for Fine Print Research has been working with staff and MA Print students from the Department of Art & Design, University of the West of England, to produce an annual show of limited edition prints. The format for the prints is the same every year – the paper size is always 20 x 25 cm – but the subject and medium for the prints are dictated by the individual artist. Prints are produced in a limited edition of 60. In return for their participation, each artist recieves a full set of 30 prints, then 5 of the remaining prints from each edition are archived and the rest are available to buy for £25 each or £80 for four. You can search the Mini Prints archives by year, here.

You can SEE A PREVIEW of one of the homes featured in the book on The Guardian website, there was a lovely feature about it in The New York Times, and it's been featured in many other titles, including You (The Daily Mail), Stella (Sunday Telegraph), Elle Decoration, Country Homes & Interiors, Homes & Antiques, Grazia, Marie Claire, Mollie Makes, Good Homes, Redbook (USA), Country Living (USA), Red - Hearst Home (Italy) and Psychologies.